Self magazine article

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Anyone read the article in the November issue of the Self magazine about the state of nursing. What were the general thoughts about it how it portrayed nursing and the whistleblowing that it did? Just curious what everyone else thought about it.

Specializes in ER.

You are doing a great job!:)

Which newspaper should we log on to, and send in our indignant letters to the editor?

I picked up the magazine for a friend who was doing a term paper because we thought it might help, but she can't seem to find the article. It was in the November issue right? What was the title? Thanks!

Hi Nursiev,

I am also from northern Ohio. I hope I have not just hired on at your place. I just got a new job. Anyway, I, like you and fiesty nurse am not afraid to speak up. I have never been told to shut up but I have been told nicely to stop complaining and find a solution before I come-a-complaining again.

Your nurse manager seems to have issues of her own and just needed an outlet and unfortunately you were close. She should go home and kick her furniture. Since you were taking a very appropriate course of action at a more than appropriate time, I would follow it up when you are ready.

First off, remember you can get another job if you ever have to. No place is worth that much stress. But if you do decide to stay and fight, take it in baby steps.

You could ask an impartial third person to meet with you and your manager. We had a nurse CNS who was always available for things like this.

Look at hospital staffing patterns for your floor for the past month and what your policy recommends for staffing the acuity. I am sure you keep records of patient acuity and staffing is supposed to be based on those records. If those are not available to you, keep your own records.

You could write everything down and also ask the other nurses to write down what they saw there at the staff meeting. I hope at least a couple other nurses would support you. If not, so what. When you meet with her, write everything down. Ask her to repeat things if she talks too fast. That oughta really get her goat.

I have done this before when we had a very unsafe situation on our unit and staff members lives were being threatened, not just licenses. I had a list of questions and wrote down word for word all responses. If that won't shake her up and get her to start thinking clearly, you can tell her, I am sorry, I still feel very strongly that this staffing issue has not been cleared up and I wished that we could have gotten to some sort of resolution but since we can't, then I must take this issue to someone who has the power to help me.

This is why nurses unionize. It is too bad that you work with nurses who just take this type of treatment as the norm. I work with a nurse who told me that being beat up is just a part of being a psych nurse's job. She had just lost her second tooth to patient's hitting her. I told her no job has listed in the job description, " tolerate abuse by patients and don't forget your mouth guard". Especially when there is such a shortage of nurses, your manager can't keep good nurses down.

Sock it to em.

PS. I would also tell her that you expect an apology for her unprofessional behavior at the next staff meeting.

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Article is titled "WHERE HAVE ALL THE NURSES GONE " and starts on page 180, November 2001 of SELF Magazine.

I had the same problem when I opened the magazine, hence my reply to the editor.

************

Specializes in ER.

My letter to the editor has gone out, thanks for posting the article.

I wonder how the college would feel about having you as a guest lecturer in their leadership/issues in nursing course. This is a great learning experience for the students, let them talk about issues and how to stand up for themselves assertively.

Great story fiesty. I emailed Mr. Molina to thank him. Wish we could clone you and send one of you state to state. Thank you for your strength, courage and obvious dedication to nurses and our quest to make things better.

**********

Specializes in ER.

Hang in there fiesty, you are earning your name.;)

:D

Fiestynurse,

The article was better than excellent! Whoever that reporter is captured the essence of the problem for us in your own painful experience fiestynurse. I too will be e-mailing him and letting him know my reaction.

It is Nurses like you who are willing to "stand in the gap" in this way, and let our voices be heard, that can make the difference for our Profession. Your story, and the stories of so many just like yourself, BELONG on the front page of newspapers. Not because it's "sensational" news and will up the sales for the publishers, but because it is TRUTH, and represents an existing delimma that keeps the general public in harms way in our health care system.

We, as Nurses, are on the frontline of a war of our own, and the "enemy" is the Corporate Wolf-Pack mindset that is out to protect its profits at the expense (no pun intended) of the safety of the general public and will go to any length to do just that.

If we, as a Profession, had a powerful lobby in Washington,DC like all the other special interest groups do, we would be believed for the truth we need to tell. Even our own professional organizations (ANA, state Nursing Associations, our Professional Journals) seem impotent to get this very message across where it will make an impact for change. We are terribly "fractured" in terms of bargaining power and all that it takes to accompish this.

I believe that those who SHOULD be leading the way for us are:

1. So far out of touch with the reality of our work settings,

2. And so comfortable in their own far-removed positions and offices,

that they wouldn't know where to start in the first place!!

We are all kidding ourselves if we think you, fiestynurse, are NOT paying a price for your stepping out like you have in this way. The "depresson" you said you felt the "next day", no doubt has to do with your being able to draw the next most logical conclusion........."I spoke out and told the truth, but nothing is going to change." That's my own "take" on it and I could be way off the mark, but it's how I would feel having been through what you have been through, and having done what you just did, (from that place in your heart that CARES about what we stand for and do as Nurses day in and day out.)

The deaf ears of the people who perpetuate the problem (corporate infrastructures).....would be "cured" if we as Nurses conducted a mass- NATIONWIDE two-day "sick out" of every hospital in this great land of ours. The only reason it has not happened on a scale such as that is that we refuse to abandon our patients and are in a sense held hostage by our Nurse Practice Acts if we did such a thing.

I encourage you to NOT let any self-doubts you may be having after the fact of this article, rob you of the more lofty character qualities you truly possess! The "naysayers" will all come out from under their rocks and take a stab at you, but they reveal their own spineless character in doing so, and retreat back under their rocks where they hide all of their own not so "lofty" character qualities (if they have any in the first place).

Be of good courage fiestynurse........you don't know it yet, but you may have opened a door that has been locked for too long on this bottom line of our profession.........patient safety!!

Bonnie Creighton,RN

Specializes in Emergency Room.

It is amazing that this hospital would think that no one would see a correlation between getting rid of feistynurse, and the magazine article. Furthermore, why would GETTING RID OF a competent nurse help patient care/staffing. just wondering!

Be of good courage fiestynurse........you don't know it yet, but you may have opened a door that has been locked for too long on this bottom line of our profession.........patient safety!!

Hi Betts,

I'm traveling through next Tuesday, but will call you later next week. I don't want to repost on allnurses.com, only because I have a backlog of people to call at the moment and don't want to frustrate anyone else with good intentions. It's the New York Times Magazine, though. You can see sample stories at nytimes.com, under "Magazine." Looking forward to talking with you. Sara

Subj: Re: VERIFY EMPLOYEE

Date: 11/30/2001 5:23:19 PM Eastern Standard Time

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Sent from the Internet (Details)

she is

_______________________________________________________________________________

Subject: VERIFY EMPLOYEE

From: [email protected] at TIME_INC

Date: 11/30/01 3:55 PM

Jennifer,

»»»»»»»»»»»»»» Since I'm unable to find a link for verifying an employee, I felt

pr was the next logical place.» The below individual, a Sara F. Corbett,

posted in http://www.allnurses.com, that she was writing an article about the

nurses shortage for Time;» see below email...Would you please confirm

whether or not she is an employee?

Thank You,

Betts

My interview is scheduled for next week with Sara. She is aware of and has read the SELF STORY. We'll see what the TIMES does.

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